3
OX SLAVE TRADE (EAST COAST OF AFRICA).
18. You are acquainted, I presume, with the
statements of Dr. Livingstone with respect
to the slave traffic ?—Yes ; and we considered
his book very much in connection with our
Report.
Have his statements been confirmed by
the information you have collected at the office ?
Yes, certainly, we have found them generally
very trustworthy.
20. You have stated that the limits within
which the export of slaves is recognised from one
port to another on the coast, are Lamoo on the
iiorth, and Kihva on the south ?—Yes, that includes
a coast line of about 350 miles.
21. Have those limits been pretty much kept
. to, or have they been overstepped ?—They are,
Û0 doubt, constantly overstepped.
22. The line on each side is, of course, only
‘Oiaginary line?—Yes.
23. What is the approximate annual export of
^aves from the dominions of the Sultan of
Zanzibar ?—We estimated it in our Report at
-0,000 a year, but it may be more. I was
looking at Dr. Kirk’s returns, in which he
says, as I understand him, that between 1867
and 1868 the Sultan got 270,000 dollars for his
tax upon slaves ; if that is the case, that amounts
to about 56,000/.; we only calculated it at 20,000 /.
a year on 20,000 slaves.
24. You suspect that the number would be
double/ — T es, upon that calculation; but I am
îlot quite sure whether Dr. Kirk included in that
the sale of slaves as well as the tax ; you can
safely take it at 20,000, it certainly is not less.
25. Have you any reason to doubt the state-^leut
made by Dr. Kirk, and confirmed by Dr.
Livingstone and the Rev. Mr. Waller, that four
or five lives are lost for every slave delivered safe
at Zanzibar ?—I have no reason to doubt it, and
fhe hardships the slaves encounter become greater
every year. As the country near the coast
oecoines depopulated, and the slave hunters have
o go further into the interior for slaves, so does
he march become more horrible and deadly to
the slaves.
f ' Hr. lù'nnaird.] From the last accounts, how
ai does it appear that the slaves are now brought ^
jy-Accor ding to the last accounts they are brought
from Lake Kyassa.
27. Have you any idea what the distance would
he . —No ; several days’journey.
, 28. C/imrman.^ The plea on which the recognised
slave traffic is carried on is, that there is°a
certain amount of labour required in Zanzibar
and the adjoining islands, and that slaves are
■wanted for that purpose?—That is the case.
*" 11 1 your idea of the number that
^ actually required for that purpose ?—
1. Kirk estimates the requirements of Zanzibar
at about 1,7m per year.
. Ai/i?iaird.] Nominally for domestic service.
— ies, there is nothing but slave labour in
anzi ai all the menial offices connected with the
household are performed by slaves ; free labour
can hardly be obtained.
31 Theie is no peculiar qualification required
or that service ?--No; they aie employed in
ynous ivorhs and drawing water, and in all the
Usual labour in a household.
CAa/rwmii.] How do you account for the
aitterence between the 1,7()0 and the 20,000?—
-Most of the others go to the foreign slave trade,
cp. ’r us far as female slaves are conerned
they are, to a great extent, taken to the
U.116.
harems of the Imaum of Muscat and the Arabian
chiefs ?—I believe that most of the slaves are
taken to Muscat itself and Soor, and from thence
they are exported to various ports on the Persian
Gulf, and to Persia itself, wherever the market is
the highest ; they go even up to Bussorah and
Mohamrah, and from thence I have no doubt
some find their way into Turkish harems.
34, In point of fact, I suppose, at Muscat there
is a recognised slave market ?—Yes.
35. I need hardly ask you whether the system
of obtaining slaves and exporting them involves
great hardships and misery ?—In answer to that
question, I cannot do better than read the beginning
of our Report. “ The slaves required, as
well for the legal as for the illegal traffic, are
obtained from the interior of Africa. Formerly
they could be procured from the countries bordering
on the coast, but constant slave raids have so
depojmlated those districts, that the slave dealers
are now forced to go far inland for their supplies.
Year by year further tracts of country are depopulated
and laid waste, an l at the present time
it is chiefly from the neighbourhood of Lake
Nyassa and beyond it that slaves are obtained.
The persons by whom this traffic is carried on
are, for the most part, Arabs, subjects of the Sultan
of Zanzibar. These slave dealers start for the
interior well armed, and provided with articles
for the barter of slaves, such as beads and cotton
cloth. On arriving at the scene of their operations,
they incite and sometimes help the natives
of one tribe to make war upon another. Their
assistance almost invariably secures victory to the
side which they support, and the captives become
their property, either by right or by purchase,
the price in the latter case being only a few yards
of cotton cloth. In the course of these operations
thousands are killed, or die subsequently of their
wounds or of starvation ; villages are burnt, and
the women and children carried away as slaves.
The complete depopulation of the country between
the coast and the present field of the slave
dealers’ operations attest the fearful character of
these raids. Having, by these and other means,
obtained a sufficient number of slaves to allow
for the heavy losses on the road, the slave dealers
start with them for the coast. The horrors attending
this long journey have been fully described
by Dr. Livingstone and others. The slaves are
inarched in gangs, the males with their necks
yoked in heavy forked sticks, which at night are
fastened to the ground, or lashed together so as
to make escape impossible. The women and
children are bound with thongs. Any attempt
at escape, or to untie their bonds, or any wavering
or lagging on the journey, has but one
punishment, immediate death. The sick are left
behind, and the route of a slave caravan can be
tracked by the dying and the dead. The Arabs
only value these poor creatures at the price which
they will fetch in the market, and if they are not
likely to pay the cost of their conveyance, they
are got rid of. The result is that a large number
of the slaves die or are murdered on the journey,
and the survivors arrive at their destination in a
state of the greatest misery and emaciation.”
36. Mr. Kinnaird.'] You do not believe that
there is the slightest exaggeration in that Report?
—No ; but of course evidence upon the state
of things in the locality would be better given by
peojile acquainted with the country.
37. Chairman.^} What revenue does the Sultan
of Zanzibar derive from the tax upon slaves ?—We
A 2 have
Hon.
C. Vivian,
10 J uly
1871.
